Effective Experimental Treatment for Cocaine Addiction - a Medication Cocktail of Topirimate and Amphetamines
A 2 drug combo of topirimate and amphetamines worked twice as well as placebo for cocaine addicts looking to quit.
We don’t yet have a single medication to really help people quit cocaine. Maybe that’s the problem, say researchers at Columbia University: no single medication works, but a combination of two different meds might just do the trick.
- Topirimate is an anti seizure medication that has been proven effective against alcohol and nicotine addiction. It has also shown some ability to disrupt cocaine addiction, but it works quite slowly - and on its own, doesn’t work quite well enough.
- There is also some evidence that amphetamines, like modafinil, can ameliorate some of the brain changes caused by cocaine addiction, like reduced executive control and disrupted reward functioning – but amphetamines alone have not proven effective in helping people quit cocaine.
But what if you mixed the 2 drugs together?
The Study
The researchers recruited a group of cocaine addicted people who were looking to get addiction treatment and divided this group in 2 segments:
- For 120 days, half of the study subjects received a combination of topirimate and amphetamines
- For 120 days, the other half of the subjects received a placebo.
- All subjects received addiction treatment psychotherapy
Neither the subjects nor the researchers knew which subjects were receiving the placebo.
The Results
- Subjects getting the medications were twice as likely to achieve three weeks of continuous abstinence (33%, compared to only 17% of the subjects who received the placebo).
- Subjects getting the topirimate and amphetamines also used cocaine on significantly fewer days over the study period than subjects getting only placebo
Commentary
The researchers say the results show the promise of this 2 medication treatment for cocaine addiction and they call for larger clinical studies to continue to test its efficacy.
Read the full study results in the current edition of Biological Psychiatry
More like this
Exendin-4: A Diabetes Medication May Help Cocaine Addicts Quit
The diabetes medication Exendin-4 may become the first effective medication against cocaine addiction.
Smoking Cigarettes Increases Risk of Cocaine Addiction
Trying to quit cocaine? You might want to consider ditching cigarettes at the same time. New research suggests that nicotine amplifies cocaine’s effects and addictiveness…just remember not to use nicotine replacement products, such as nicotine gum or the patch, as these too increase cocaine’s effects.
New Cocaine Vaccine Looks Promising
Researchers at Weill Cornell Medical Center think they’re on to something big – a vaccine that could help cocaine addicts kick a notoriously difficult addiction.
Rio Rounds Up Street Kids and Forces 3 Months of Drug Treatment
Under Rio De Janeiro’s controversial new drug treatment program for street youth, if police and social workers find you on the street in high drug use areas and you can’t prove you’ve got a home to go to – you are heading to 3 months of locked in drug treatment; whether you want it or not.
Common Antipsychotic Medication Aripiprazole Might Double as Effective Cocaine Addiction Medication
Spanish researchers say that using a common antipsychotic medication may help cocaine users manage cravings and quit using.